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Andy Murray reaches Australian Open final for fourth time

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA—Andy Murray has reached the Australian Open final for the fourth time, giving him one more chance to end his winless streak at Melbourne Park.

The sixth-seeded Murray beat No. 7 Tomas Berdych 6-7 (6), 6-0, 6-3, 7-5 in a semifinal littered with flashes of anger Thursday night, capping off a day when Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova set up a women’s final featuring the two top ranked players — a first in 11 years at Melbourne Park.

Murray has lost three finals at Melbourne Park — to Roger Federer in 2010 and Novak Djokovic in ’11 and ’13. He’ll get a chance to end that streak Sunday, against either Djokovic or defending champion Stan Wawrinka. Since those losses, he has won the U.S. Open and Wimbledon titles to end a long drought for British men in the majors.

Top-ranked Serena Williams has won all five Australian Open finals she has contested, her last coming in 2010. After holding on to win the tough first set against 19-year-old Madison Keys, the 18-time Grand Slam champion dominated the second set in a 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory.

Sharapova won the 2008 title, but was comprehensively outplayed in her two other trips to the final — by Williams in 2007 and by Victoria Azarenka in 2012.

Williams, who has struggled with a cold for a week, said she’d benefit from a tough workout in the all-American semifinal against Keys, who pounded her with heavy groundstrokes and a big serve for the first set.

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“She pushed me really hard the first set . . . and I had to really dig deep mentally to get through that,” Williams said. “It was a little frustrating. I had like nine or 10 match points and couldn’t close it out. That doesn’t happen so much. She played like she didn’t have anything to lose.”

Keys, playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal, saved seven match points on serve in a penultimate game that lasted more than 11 minutes. Williams kept her cool, though, wasting one match point on her serve before closing with an ace to reach her 23rd major final. Williams was at her best after dropping her opening service game, finishing the match with just one double-fault, firing 13 aces and defending when she needed to defend.

Keys, who beat Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the third round and Venus Williams in the quarterfinals, had control until she was broken in the sixth game.

She held in the 12th game, closing with an ace to force a tiebreaker, but quickly fell behind 4-1 with Serena firing two aces. She saved two set points with aces but had no chance of extending the tiebreaker when Williams hit another unreturnable serve, and started jumping for joy.

Williams led 5-1 lead in the second set when Keys held, denying victory for one more game the woman who inspired her to take up tennis.

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“It’s been so long since I’ve even been in a final here,” said the 33-year-old Williams, who will be the oldest woman to play an Australian final in the Open era and will retain top-ranking regardless of the result. “I was kind of like, ‘Oh, let me just try.’ My theory now is to relax and play the match as best as I can.’”

Sharapova, who beat No. 10-seeded Ekaterina Makarova 6-3, 6-2 in an all-Russian semifinal, has lost her last 15 matches against Williams. Her only two wins in their 18 career meetings were in 2004.

“I think my confidence should be pretty high going into a final of a Grand Slam no matter who I’m facing and whether I’ve had a terrible record, to say the least, against someone,” Sharapova said. “It doesn’t matter. I got there for a reason. I belong in that spot. I will do everything I can to get the title.”

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Sharapova needed 10 minutes to hold in her opening service game, fending off two break points. She responded to the only service break against her in the first set by winning six straight games and seizing control of the match from the 10th-seeded Makarova.

The five-time major winner opened the 2015 season in confident style by winning the Brisbane International title but had a close call in the second round here, having to save match points against No. 150-ranked Russian qualifier Alexandra Panova.

“It’s been a strange road for me to get to the finals, but I’m happy,” Sharapova said. “I felt like I was given a second chance. I just wanted to take my chances.”

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